1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a pneumatic spring-vibration damper assembly.
2. Background Information
A similar pneumatic spring is disclosed in Gm 88 13 045.2. One functional disadvantage of such a design is that a seal must be created by means of one or more O-rings between the vibration damper and the roll-off tube. Furthermore, all the axial forces must be transmitted by the roll-off tube to the vibration damper by means of a relatively small abutment, contact, or stop ring. A fundamental problem is the creation of a sufficiently large spring chamber, or the elimination of external supplemental volumes.
An additional problem is that during assembly, the roll-off tube can twist relative to the vibration damper. But the connection for a compressed gas source must be in a specified position or at a specified insertion length, so that in the vehicle, the pneumatic spring can be connected to the compressed gas source, and so that during the suspension process, collisions can be avoided between the connection and other components located in the vicinity of the installation. In similar devices of the prior art, the position of the roll-off tube had to be adjusted manually in such cases. On account of the friction resulting from the use of the O-rings, this process was time-consuming and required the application of significant forces.
Furthermore, in the event of unpressurized pneumatic spring movements, the roll-off tube can become twisted. Under unfavorable conditions, it is possible that inside the space in which the pneumatic spring is installed, the pneumatic connection can collide with another part and/or that the air line can be torn apart.